I am a beginner in electronics and for my school project I am making this really cool Altoids Solar Charger based off the instructable. The whole reason I am doing it is to make it based off a schematic. Is there any way you have a schematic for this project because I really need one, so I can order the kit and make it. Get back to me as soon as possible.

I am not very good with circuits, as I don't know much at all about it, but could you just make 2 parallel circuits, one for AA, and one for AAA, hook both of them to the same panel, and have a switch to go from charging your AA to your AAA instantly? I would do this, but I haven't gotten my solar panel collection yet.

I got your kit in the mail today and I'll be soldering it up this weekend. I just read through the instructable and at the end you have that aside about getting crazy and adding a charge indicator or test light. I'm new to electronics. How would I go about doing that?

Add an LED into the mix so that it's parallel with the solar cell, but also wire a button in so that the LED isn't always on. Use a blue LED which requires 3.6V power. As your batteries can't power it it would have to run off the solar cell.

Push the button and see if there is enough power coming in.

I'm sure there is a better way, like using some sort of voltage trigger, but I like keeping things very uncomplicated.

Im working on a charger using a 9 volt 42 mA solar panel. I want to set it up so that I can charge AA or AAA batteries ( will probably use a connector so that I can swap out battery holders. I plan on charging around 4AA at a time around 6v. What do I need to do to keep my batteries from overcharging?

If I wanted to use this design to charge 4 batteries is it as easy as doubling all the requirements? i.e. need at least 7V

also, with the 10% of battery capacity rule: is it only 10% of one battery, or 10% of the sum of the batteries current capacities. i.e. 10% 1 battery @2000 mah = 200 mah 10% 4 batteries @2000 mah = 800 mah or is it still 200 mah?

It's a battery charger, not a phone charger. Just AA and AAA batteries.

Depending on how low your batteries are it can take anywhere from 5 - 10 hours of sunlight. The way I use it is that I have a spare set of batteries stored in the tin, then swap out my "dead" batteries with those spare and then charge the "dead" ones up. By the time my spares are used up my "dead" are all charged.

Look around instructables, I know I saw someone showing how to make your own solar cells.

Though if you want to use them in projects I would suggest not doing so. The ones you make are going to be very very poor compared to even the cheapest factory made ones. Shoot, you can get them for free if you can find someone throwing out old garden lights.

Though I've seen quite a few places selling new solar graden lights for less than $3, which is darned cheap for a solar cell + LED + circuit + rechargeable battery. You might as well buy one and gut it.

The 3DS doesn't run on AA batteries, so no. What you could use is a AA to USB converter. Like what I use with my Altoids Solar USB Charger. I also have a kit for that as well if you'd rather build it yourself.

Then you'd just need a USB cable to hook into your 3DS. I've seen them before, so I know you can find them.